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Nice to see these guys put aside their differences and make an appearance together!.. Would have been better to see them perform together with all the original members, but hey in a perfect world it would still be 1976 at the height of their fame! On the tonight show with Jimmy Fallon KISS will be performing tonight! With the current members, not the originals I’m pretty sure!.

Peter Criss will always remain one of rock’s most recognized and popular drummers. As a founding member of Kiss, Criss donned iconic makeup to represent a character and look of his own creation, and that duly transformed him, not just from mortal human to immortal superstar, but into a bona fide superhero in the eyes of many young Kiss fans. And because like their idols, the Beatles, the four members of Kiss made a point of showcasing each one’s unique musical talents — at least to some degree — on their albums, we felt it fitting to recognize the Top 10 Peter Criss Kiss Songs.

We start our list of Top 10 Peter Criss Kiss Songs with this relative standout from the drummer’s much maligned debut. Though it was released under the familiar Kiss imprimatur, alongside his bandmates’ similarly appointed, color-coded efforts, ‘Peter Criss’ already showed the growing creative differences — his love of classic R&B and romantic ballads and most importantly, a desire for more of the spotlight — that would push him out of Kiss.

We initially slotted ‘Dynasty’’s ‘Dirty Livin’’ for this spot … but then we came to our senses and swapped in the Ace Frehley-composed, Criss-sung ‘Getaway.’ Not that there’s all that much praise we can lavish on this solid but workmanlike tune from ‘Dressed to Kill’ — other than to say it’s not as helplessly hilarious as ‘Dirty Livin’,’ which featured a dated disco bass line courtesy of Gene Simmons.

Now here’s a modest, but undeniably lovable Criss-helmed album cut we can categorically endorse, taken from 1974‘s sophomore Kiss opus, ‘Hotter than Hell.’ No, ‘Mainline’ wasn’t smash hit material and rarely reared its cat-faced little head in Kiss’ live shows, but there’s a fetching simplicity to Paul Stanley’s opening riff sequence (clearly inspired by Free) that we simply find impossible to resist. Hear for yourselves…

Peter penned this number himself with the help of perennial songwriting partner, Stan Penridge, and while it wound up overshadowed by another ‘Rock and Roll Over’ highlight we will get to further on down this list, ‘Baby Driver’ boasts an impassioned vocal that epitomizes Criss’ underrated, soulful style. In fact, you could easily make a case that the Cat was the best singer in Kiss, technically speaking.

Peter Criss’ skills as a drummer have been subjected to serious (and often unfair) abuse in recent years, but none of that can erase the indelible memory of his rock-solid, workhorse display of percussive prowess on ‘Alive!’’s definitive version of ‘100,000 Years.’ Even if you can hardly recall Criss’ understated contribution to the song’s original studio recording, but on ‘Alive!’ he sounded positively Bonham-like!

Another Criss/Penridge collaboration — this one from the excellent ‘Love Gun’ LP — ‘Hooligan’ was essentially cut from the same cloth as ‘Baby Driver,’ but arguably turned out even more infectious, and certainly more amusing, thanks to the hapless high school dropout described as its protagonist. The remaining thee members of Kiss seemed to agree, too, with Gene and Paul throwing themselves into the backing vocals while Ace bolstered the song with one of his magically simple, but perfect, guitar solos.

If you find it a little odd that we’d place this oft-forgotten ‘Hotter than Hell’ closer at No. 4 on our list of Top 10 Peter Criss Kiss Songs, just keep in mind it’s a cult favorite of sorts, and has been frequently covered through the years by everyone from Big Four thrashers Megadeth, to Swedish death metal band Hypocrisy, to Norwegian avant-metal weirdoes Ulver. Acutally, we can’t believe the Melvins haven’t gotten to this one yet.

Perhaps no song (aside from the one you won’t be surprised to find in the No. 1 spot) has been more closely associated with Peter Criss over the years than this jaunty acoustic folk song composed by Paul Stanley — originally with none other than Rod Stewart in mind! But he wisely kept it for Kiss instead, handing it off for the Catman to sing as the first single from ‘Rock and Roll Over.’ This decision no doubt contributed to taking ‘Hard Luck Woman‘ (later covered by country superstar Garth Brooks) into the U.S. Top 20 and numerous international charts

You can crow all you want about ‘Rock and Roll All Nite,’ ‘Shout it Out Loud’ and ‘Detroit Rock City,’ but, for our money, larger-than-life Kiss anthems don’t get any bigger or better than the superb ‘Black Diamond.’ And who is it singing lead vocals on there? That’s right, Peter Criss — at least after the song’s composer, Paul, gets done quietly crooning the first verse and then cues Peter into action with a familiar “Hit it!” From that point forward, this cinematic epic about seedy inner city life is brought to life by Criss’ raw and bluesy delivery.

Well, what did you expect? Long after each and every one of us is dead and gone (all of us except for the immortal Gene, of course, who cannot be “unmade”), Kiss’ biggest career hit, ‘Beth,’ will be soaring on sweeping strings across the radio airwaves, web streams, and whatever it is they invent next! Peter Criss’ signature love song may suffer from a little of that overplayed ear-worm syndrome, and it doesn’t even represent the trademark hard rock Kiss sound, sure, but it’s bound to live on as the man’s lasting legacy, and therefore was an extremely worthy choice to crown our list of Top 10 Peter Criss Kiss Songs.

Obviously if you have visited this blog at all, you know that we are Big KISS fans here at OurShirtsRock.com, So over the past year or so I have collected some really great Vintage Kiss photos from all kinds of great photo sessions of the band in their hey day and beyond. You can view the rest of them here at My Vintage Kiss photo Collection.

For those who don’t know, Kiss has finally been inducted into the Rock N roll Hall of fame (RRHOF) this year. Although they are being inducted, the RRHOF being the complete idiots that they are have found a way to Snubb Kiss’s induction even in their 40th Anniversary year the RRHOF have stated that they are only inducting the Original 4 members Ace,Paul, Gene , and Peter Criss.

Some of the current members stint in the band like Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer have actually been in the band longer than the original drummer Peter Criss . Also the late Eric Carr who replaced Peter had played in the band for 11 years before his death. He is also not being inducted which is horrible.Bruce Kulick also a long time member , Vinnie Vincent (Huge contributor to Kiss Sans Makeup) all not being inducted. This is wrong on so many levels its disgusting. Was Sammy Hagar told he wasn’t going to be inducted to the hall when Van Halen was inducted ? NO WAY!….to make matters worse the Hall is now dictating that people can only speak for 4 minutes at their ceremony. They are really going out of their way to make KISS feel like second class citizens in the Rock N Roll world.

The consequence to all this drama surrounding Kiss’s induction is that KISS will not be performing in any capacity whatsoever at the RRHOF induction ceremony. The only people that suffer because of this horrible treatment of the band is the fans that more than deserve the right to see one of the greatest bands on earth perform at least one more time with the 4 original members . Some kind of all star Jam session could have certainly been put together as to not leave anyone out of the KISS family and their current Marketing strategy for the band and its upcoming tour with the Thayer/Singer in the lineup. I should mention here that according to Ace and Peter it was Gene and Paul who initially refused to play with the original Lineup and wanted instead to play with the current lineup. Gene and Paul Later released a statement stating that this was untrue and that the RRHOF only wanted to induct the original members and that KISS was open to performing with the originals, but didn’t think it fair to leave out current and past members.

First off, KISS has been Eligible for induction to the RRHOF for the last 15 years. That being said, As usual the RRHOF board or whoever runs this circus could have saved all this drama surrounding Kiss’s induction by simply inducting them early on after their eligibility. If they didn’t have their heads up their asses and inducted them Even a couple of years after they became eligible the original 4 members of the band could have showed and performed together. They have been eligible since 1999. Hypothetically If they inducted them lets say in 2003 at that time Kiss was on the World Domination tour and although Ace had bowed out of that tour, all the members were still in good standing enough to appear and perform together, AND most likely sound and look good. Again we’re talking about the RRHOF….the same organization that have not inducted bands like Deep Purple, Ozzy Osbourne, Cheap Trick,Iron Maiden, Bon Jovi, Journey, Judas Priest, Motley Crue, Whitney Houston, Motorhead, The runaways, The Cars, The Spinners, Rush with arguably the greatest Drummer to ever walk the earth was finally Inducted last year.

The only people that suffer for the HOF ‘s bad behavior regarding KISS ,is the fans. Although they pride themselves on not listening to the public , this whole treatment of them really makes me sick. The HOF is not that cool, Sorry but KISS fans don’t need an induction to this place to know that KISS rocked the world like no other band in Rock N Roll history ever could have and arguably Influenced more musicians and rock stars than almost any band on earth.

Interested in seeig some AWESOME classic pics of KISS in their prime and in all their Glory?..Check out my Classic KISS photo gallery of Vintage KISS Pics.